"Star Wars" 3D Re-Releases On Hold

After a modest $23 million domestic haul with the 3D re-release of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" on the big screen last year, Fox and Lucasfilm had been planning to move ahead with the same treatment of all five "Star Wars" films.

It had gotten far enough that Episodes II & III were already scheduled for early this Fall. Despite Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, it was expected those re-release plans would not be disrupted.

So much for that idea. Disney now reportedly wants to focus "only on rebooting the franchise" with new films. As a result, reports emerged this morning that they have scrapped plans to bring any of the other movies back for 3D re-releases.

However, StarWars.com posted a statement that they have only "postponed" the release:

"Given the recent development that we are moving forward with a new Star Wars trilogy, we will now focus 100 per cent of our efforts on Star Wars: Episode VII in order to ensure the best possible experience for our fans. We will post further information about our 3D release plans at a later date."

That means they'll either quietly cancel it later, or are holding the re-releases until the months before the upcoming J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Wars: Episode VII" in order to build up hype.